


hand in my hand (promise to never let go)

by alyciaclebnam



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: F/F, canon compliant I think, just a lil ficlet, should fit somewhere in the first movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 11:27:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17099744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alyciaclebnam/pseuds/alyciaclebnam
Summary: It’s common knowledge that Beca doesn’t like being touched. She finds it weird that she doesn’t mind being touched by Chloe.





	hand in my hand (promise to never let go)

Beca trudges up the stairs of Baker Hall after her last class.

She’s pretty sure her dad has recruited all her professors as snitches, because he’s been making a point to visit her dorm whenever she cuts class – the perks of actually being _friends_ with his colleagues, she supposes. In any case, it means that she’s been going to classes semi-regularly.

She still skips sometimes, because morning classes are a bitch and a half, and pre-coffee Beca is more waspish than post-rehearsal Aubrey.

Beca swears she only ever attends her 8am _Intro to Philosophy_ class when she’s coming off a graveyard shift at the station, and she’s so tired that collapsing in the closest lecture hall sounds more appealing than trekking across campus to get back to her dorm. She gets credit for going to class, avoids a visit from her dad, _and_ gets to nap in the face of higher education.

College classes aren’t the worst, but she has better things to do with her time, like sleep and work on her mixes and put in the bare minimum at acapella practice so Aubrey doesn’t chew her out for longer than the requisite two minutes before every rehearsal.

Her occasional truancy _does_ mean semi-regular visits from her dad though. She’s totally not bitter about the fact that his _semi_ -regular visits are more regular than the ones she ever got during her childhood.

Beca might be mildly disgruntled at best, but she’s not bitter. She doesn’t do extreme emotions. She barely has the capacity for one emotion a day, and that emotion is usually apathy.

Anyway, she can handle a few lukewarm speeches from her dad about taking advantage of her college experience. He tries to use different words, but it’s always same message.

Beca is about ready to pass out by the time she reaches her floor. She almost drops her key at the unexpected sight of Chloe standing outside her door. Chloe is smiling innocently, but she’s also got both hands behind her back, so Beca can’t help approaching her cautiously.

“Uh, hey,” Beca greets awkwardly, coming to a stop in front of her. She can’t get past because Chloe is blocking the door, and she wonders if that was a deliberate power move. Or maybe Chloe is unintentionally standing in the way, and Beca is reading too much into it. Fuck, she really needs a nap. “Did I miss a surprise rehearsal or something? Actually, scratch that – a surprise rehearsal goes against Aubrey’s meticulous plan for the Bellas, and we all know that we can’t deviate from the script.”

“Oh, I’m just here to visit you, actually,” Chloe says brightly, seemingly unaffected by the sarcasm. Beca waits for further explanation, but nothing comes. Chloe glances between the door and the key that Beca is just holding in her hand. “Aren’t you gonna go inside?”

Beca blinks. “Right. Yes.”

Chloe doesn’t seem to think she’s obstructing the door. She shifts sideways like an _inch_ , and Beca is forced to unlock it while Chloe looms over her. She misses the keyhole twice because Chloe’s breath is playing across her ear – she’s _that_ close to her face – and it causes an involuntary whole-body shiver.

Beca eventually jams the key into the lock and throws the door open, desperate for air that hasn’t been expelled from someone else’s mouth. She sits at the end of her bed and starts unlacing her boots, surreptitiously watching as Chloe looks around the room. She tucks her boots under the bed and waits for Chloe to remember that she’s there.

Chloe utters a soft “oh!” and then whirls on Beca. She glances at Beca’s socked feet and then proceeds to undo the buckles of her wedged sandals. She slides her shoes next to Beca’s boots and takes a seat beside Beca.

The entire length of Beca’s upper arm is pressed up against Chloe’s side, but she can’t shift away because she’s already at the end of the bed. Beca honestly can’t decide whether it’s another power move, or just Chloe being Chloe.

It doesn’t seem like Chloe is going to say anything, so Beca reluctantly takes the initiative.

“What’s up, dude?”

Chloe turns to her with a brilliant smile. Beca almost reels back because their proximity means that Chloe’s face is much, much closer to her own face than expected, but she stops herself just in time, wary of unintentionally offending Chloe.

Chloe is pretty much her only friend at Barden – Jesse doesn’t count even though he says they’re friends, because Beca has placed him firmly in the ‘work colleagues’ box –  and she doesn’t feel like screwing up her only friendship yet.

(Beca is bad at maintaining healthy relationships of any kind, so some sort of fallout is probably inevitable. But she likes Chloe, so she’s trying not to fuck things up so soon.)

Chloe is like, sunshine personified. Beca hates the sun, but she’d hate it less if it looked like Chloe.

“I brought a movie over,” Chloe says, pulling a DVD case from behind her back. Beca _knew_ she was hiding something. “Will you watch it with me?”

Beca hates movies. _Hates_ them with a passion. But the way that Chloe is staring at her makes her falter, and she makes the mistake of not immediately denying the request. Chloe latches onto that, and her smile grows even wider.

“Great!” Chloe chirps, even though Beca hasn’t said anything. “Do you have a laptop?”

“I hate movies,” Beca finally grumbles, but she still reaches for her messenger bag and pulls her laptop out. She boots it up and holds a hand out for the DVD case, but Chloe holds onto it with a thoughtful frown.

“I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t like movies,” Chloe says, but without the judgement that usually accompanies those words. Most people don’t believe her when she says so, but it _is_ an uncommon dislike, and Beca has learned to let it slide.

“We don’t have to watch it,” Chloe offers kindly.

She sounds so genuinely _not_ disappointed, but something about her tone makes Beca uncomfortable. Snatching the DVD case from Chloe’s fingers is a split-second decision. She doesn’t meet Chloe’s eyes as she inserts the disc into her laptop.

To her credit, Chloe doesn’t comment, just shuffles backward on the bed and waits for Beca to do the same. She balances the laptop equally across their thighs and hits play.

Beca doesn’t immediately hate the movie. It has predictable moments, like every movie does, but her eyeballs haven’t rolled permanently into the back of her head yet, so it’s not _too_ bad.

Things start changing at around the fifty-minute mark.

Beca usually abhors physical contact – she enjoys personal space and doesn’t understand the appeal of gratuitous touching – but Chloe has been pressed up against her for the better part of an hour, and she hasn’t objected _once_. She doesn’t lean into Chloe or anything weird like that, but she also doesn’t squirm away from the closeness.

She might even go as far as saying that it feels _nice_.

Their upper arms are almost lined up completely, with Chloe’s shoulder just above Beca’s, and their legs are pressed together from hip to calf. Beca’s elbow is propped on her own thigh and her fingers are splayed awkwardly next to the trackpad of her laptop, supporting her forearm, because she doesn’t know what else to do with it.

If she relaxes her forearm down, her hand will be hovering awkwardly over her keyboard. If she tries to cross her arms or pull her forearm across her stomach, she’ll jostle Chloe.

It’s during this internal dilemma that Chloe, probably unconsciously, slides her hand down and tangles their fingers together.

Beca thought she couldn’t stiffen any further, but her body does her a solid and decides to jam up all her internal organs as well. She hopes Chloe can’t feel her racing heartbeat through all their points of connection, or the way that she’s barely breathing.

She focuses intensely on the laptop screen for a while, and it isn’t until Chloe shifts and Beca _feels_ all the places that they’re touching, that she realises that she’s probably missed a huge part of the plot.

She can’t help from sighing, because the movie is going to be even _worse_ now that she’s lost the stupid storyline.

Chloe catches the sigh – how could she not, with how close they are – and she squeezes Beca’s hand gently, asking what’s wrong.

“Can we go back a bit?” Beca asks reluctantly.

Chloe must find the request amusing, because she laughs a little. “You _want_ to subject yourself to the movie for longer than the prescribed-” she pauses and reaches for the DVD case with her free hand. “-hundred and twenty-six minutes?”

“I was distracted,” Beca tries not to flap her jaw about while she speaks; the more she moves any part of her body, the more she comes into contact with Chloe, and she doesn’t want to overwhelm her stupid tactile sensibilities. She was _so_ close to reaching some sort of equilibrium. “If I’m going to watch a movie, I want to pay attention to the whole thing so I don’t have to watch it again.”

Chloe hums. It’s an I-don’t-believe-you-but-okay kind of hum, which Beca narrows her eyes at, but thankfully Chloe doesn’t question her further. She rewinds the movie until Beca tells her to stop, and then they settle in again.

As settled as Beca can get, anyway.

Everything goes well from that point, until Chloe starts rubbing her thumb slowly across the lower part of Beca’s palm. Beca groans internally, but she tries her best to keep watching.

She’s apparently a terrible actor though, because Chloe eventually pauses the movie.

“You’re still distracted,” Chloe says, sounding somewhat concerned. “Do I need to go back again, or…?”

“Yes please,” Beca concedes, in the smallest voice possible because she’s kind of embarrassed.

“How long?” Chloe asks.

“Um,” Beca hesitates. Their friendship is pretty new, and she actually likes Chloe as a person, so she doesn’t want to weird Chloe out with her touchiness about, well, being touched. In the end, her propensity for honesty wins. “How long have you been holding my hand?

Chloe doesn’t say anything. She makes this _face_ and Beca is fairly certain that Chloe wants to pinch her burning red cheeks. She doesn’t do that, thankfully.

But she _does_ press a lingering kiss to Beca’s cheek, almost near the corner of her mouth, and then turns away with a soft smile.

Beca is lost for words.

Chloe skips the movie back a bit. Before she hits play, she looks at Beca and her gaze turns a little more solemn. She glances down at their joined hands – Beca does too, instinctively – and Beca feels Chloe’s fingers twitch between her own.

“Serious question though, should I _not_ hold-”

“No!” Beca exclaims, finally finding her voice. The last thing she wants is for Chloe to let go, and she tries to course correct, “I mean, please hold my hand.”

Her tone is dripping with obvious desperation and she grimaces at the overt display of feelings.

“I’ll think of it like exposure therapy, or whatever,” Beca says, trying to regain her usual air of nonchalance, but then she realises how cutting her words might sound. Chloe doesn’t deserve her particular brand of derisive self-preservation. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I don’t hate having you around.”

Beca has apparently maxed out her daily expressions of emotion, because that’s as close as she can come to saying _I like you_.

Chloe smiles like she understands exactly what Beca isn’t saying. She snuggles even closer, which Beca thought was actually physically impossible, and presses play on the movie. Beca forgoes any further understanding of the storyline in favour of calming her rapidly beating heart.

“For the record,” Chloe says, some minutes later and without looking away from the screen. “I like you too.”

Beca wonders if this is the _college experience_ that her dad keeps nagging her about – because if it is, she’s not actually all that against it.

She contemplates skipping her next class so that she can ask him.

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi on tumblr @ alyciaclebnam


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